Distraught mum tells of child's 'legal high' horror

Swim finds it disgusting and appaling that anybody could sell Research chemicals to a minor, 14 years is very young and dangerous to be introducing foreign chemicals like drugs into your body.

You see it is Swim's opinion that when your body is in the forming years or puberty then basically you do not want to mess around with it too much. Imagine your cells rapidly expanding and growing and all of the sudden you repeatedly wack them with a strong chemical, what do you think would happen?

Maybe:

1. Stunted development
So lets say you are busy growing and developing and all this mitosis is going on and it is all good, now you go and pop a few pills and snort a line here and there. In some areas you are causing damage where development is nowhere near completion. Areas stop growing or slow down considerably in their development. Think cognitive abilities, immune system under developed, a lot of things actually as the entire body is still under completion and rather fragile at this age. Imagine damaging the dopamine and serotonin levels permanently because you thought it would be cool to do loads of drugs before 15. Do you think life could be the same again?

2. Easier addiction
The young user's body is more easily susceptible to changes and influences, it could be changed in such a way that it becomes dependent easier because it is still growing along with the user's mind and logic. This means willpower also is not what it should be, possible need for escapism as a teen could potentiate things into larger problems.

You see drugs aren't inherently bad and Swim has played the game by the following rules and saved himself a lot of damage by being smart about things and knowing that there was always time later in life to experiment. My rules were:

1. DO NOT experiment with drugs and mind altering substances before Swiy have finished puberty and developmental years. (which means 18 or older in Swim's book)
This way the body is stronger and the damage is way less because the body's growth has stabilised.

2. When Swim uses a substance or experiment with something GIVE your body TIME TO REST and recover, it is no use tripping every day or rolling every weekend on MDMA and not looking after yourself. It may be fun but you are definitely wearing your body out faster and will have less time in future to enjoy the things that Swiy enjoys.

3.KNOW EXACTLY what it is that you are experimenting with. Do research and find out all you can about the substance, dosage, precautions, possible drug interactions etc. Many people have died because they never knew that you aren't supposed to drink and do coke on MAOI's. Things like that, remember knoweledge could make a world of difference. Yes, Swim underestimated LSD once, now today I arm myself with knoweledge, not always for myself. Remember, what you know could save others too...

4.<Personal prefference rule>
When in doubt, stay away from:
-Methamphetamines
-Heroin
-Crack
This was a Noob rule of thumb for Swim as he knew that those 3 were the big 3 and toying with them is no joke, not neccessarily that they are bad but Swim does not think Noobs should play with atom bombs when there are lots of matches and other fun stuff that are a bit "lighter" to try out on.

These are just Swim's personal views on minors using drugs, drugs may not be all sunshine but still we got to have some morals and not expose vulnerable people (our children) to things we know are hectic. I'm sure the dealer in this article didn't bat an eyelid selling the "Plantfood" to a school child. It's idiots like these that give regular honest open minded people like us a very bad name and just force everything into the sin bin to get banned because it is killing people, they never see that there could be another side to drugs other than the destructive sides. Because of people like these exposing our children under the guise of 'legal' substances, peer pressure seems to also be a great factor.

Seems like people will do inhuman things for a quick buck, no matter what the costs.

Any young Swimmers thinking of experimenting with drugs please heed Swim's words, he has seen a lot of good people fall and the only reason he has his sanity compared to them is because he followed some guidelines prior to jumping in.

Because Mephedrone is legal (for now) does not mean it is benign.

Hope this helps some young Swimmers out there, they are just some things Swim wishes to relay from experience.

totally sound advice especially...

When in doubt, stay away from:
-Methamphetamines
-Heroin
-Crack

young people and substance use - no, no, no!

What’s the relevance of the picture of Fr. Brian D'Arcy and Jimmy Magee with the article?

Oh dear God no! Not a sweaty rash! anything but a sweaty rash!

obviously its uncool to sell to minors, but honestly how did this story get to the news? a kid takes drugs, his mom decides her story is different from everyone else's, the media whips itself into a frenzy over something that happens a million times a day.

if you're gonna go to the news with the story of your child's terrible drug problem, then at least have the common decency to make sure there is one. In this case make sure that the "terrible" effects are interesting. if they're not then either deal with it like a normal human being by talking to him, or at least make something up... i mean damn...

The fact that this young person had a bad reaction but justified his use of this drug (again) was that it "was legal" so it was ok. This is what needs challenging, not the effects. We have to educate kids to understand that cos it's "legal" doesn't mean it's "safe."

Sparkles.:vibes:

If you should experience a skin rash, discontinue use. I problem persists, contact your doctor.

oh, don't get me wrong, this kid is retarded to justify it like that, but to tell the truth, outside of DF people seem to think like this on a regular basis. its just that these bad effects were in no way news worthy. swim has had effects ten times this bad from smoking cannabinoids, he shakes, gets paranoid, imagines chest pains... he doesnt go telling the news about it. he knows these things come with the territory and learns how to avoid them and how to deal with them. rather than telling the media about this experience maybe these people should just accept that they dont do well with drugs.

SWIM is not feeling so good about this. This is what ruins things for people who consume responsibly. There should be no way a 14 year old should even be in the situation to be offered drugs...kudos to the parents for keeping a watchful eye...NOT!

The blame cannot be put entirely on the parent however, more so on the person who gave him the chemical knowing that his brain wasn't fully developed to comprehend the good and bad of indulging in such behaviors. Again, this is what ruins it for everyone.

FUCKS SAKE ! Okay sorry for that little outburst!.... Its just annoying when 1.Underage non-informed kiddies go taking substances in the wrong way/the wrong amount.

and

2. A headshop owner would sell to them I mean there's a good fake id and then there's just plain taking the piss.

SWIM is really, really, really, really sick and tired of people od'ing and just generally having naive, idiotic attitudes towards legal highs and giving everyone else a bad name. We NEED someone who can clearly and coherently deliver the argument FOR Headshops and legal highs. Its just too f*!king annoying that more than half the population can go out and get out-of-their-brains-pissed every Saturday night, but legal high users, well they might as well be down their with your local Joe Junkie heading to the methedone clinic on a Saturday afternoon. Ugh why can't this country get a f*!king grip !

Peace and Love

Funny I should come across this thread - SWIM works for the board in question making comment (and has studied under their curriculum many moons ago), and can confirm they have as much interest in public liason, harm reduction and FACTUAL drug eduction as they have of watching my nan curling one out on david dickinsons chest whilst whistling the coronation street theme.

They're too busy trying to keep their jobs and/or thinking how they're going to spend their thousands upon thousands of backdated job evaluation money.

I would put good money it took at least 10 people a whole day between them to come up with that statement.

the whole "legal highs" market has always left a bad taste in SWIM's mouth. With the old laboratory "research chemicals" market there was no misleading marketing methods. These people selling "wild cat" or plant food are scumbags, IMHO. People have died because of this type of free-wheeling marketing. With "research chemicals" it sounds like a dangerous lab experiment. With "plant food" it sounds like a delicioius way to spend the afternoon. Wild Cat sounds like a type of sneaker.

These guys are probably the same ones who would microwave up some crack for a quick profit.

It sounded like the kid took a bit more than he should have. Yet another flaw in this disturbing marketing scheme, lack of proper dosage, safety or interaction info.

The lifespan of these products as being legal is probably getting really short. Expect another operation web tryp soon.